5 Minutes with Nick Arciniaga

Emerging marathoner on U.S. team bound for world championships in Daegu

At the rate he’s been progressing, Nick Arciniaga looks like he might be the next American runner to break 2:10 in the marathon. The 27-year-old Cal-State Fullerton alumni has raced three major marathons since June 2010, building a near-seamless progression of personal bests that include the 2010 San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon (2:11:47) and the 2011 Chevron Houston Marathon (2:11:30). It was in Houston that Arciniaga drew

the most attention. While still rebounding from a disappointing showing at the 2010 Chicago Marathon (where an off day saw him finish in 2:18), Arciniaga was called upon to pace 2:10 marathoner and McMillanElite teammate Brett Gotcher through 25K of the Houston race. Gotcher fell off the pace, but Arciniaga held it together and finished second. On May 1 at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., Arciniaga ran a 28:29.71 PB in the second section of the 10,000m. If nothing else, he’s proof (like former Hanson's teammate Brian Sell) that being a Division I All-American isn’t a prerequisite to becoming a national-class marathoner. He owns the sixth-fastest time among eligible qualifiers for next winter's U.S. Olympic trials marathon. This week, he was named to the U.S. squad that will compete in the IAAF World Championships on Sept. 4 in Daegu, South Korea, his first race in a U.S. singlet. (The rest of the U.S. team is expected to be announced by USATF later this week.)

Running Times: You used to be a half-miler, now you're a marathoner. Talk about your progression as a runner.

Nick Arciniaga: Back in high school, I was predominantly running the 800m and 1500m because that’s what I thought my event was. When I was in college, I ran the same events. But then as a senior, I ran a 5K on the track in 14:23 and that ended up being the best race I’d run in college. I had only run 3:54 in the 1500m, which was only about 10 seconds faster than I ran in high school. So then I decided to move up to longer distances.

RT: You didn’t really race beyond 1500m until you were a senior in college and now you’re going to run the marathon in the world championships. That's quite a leap in six years.

NA: Yeah, I kind of lucked out when I discovered the marathon would be my distance. I still had a year in college even though I had finished my eligibility, so I kept training with my college team, worked part-time and went to school. I started trying out all different distances — 5K, 10K, steeplechase, half marathon — because the 1500m didn't pan out as well as I had hoped and I thought I might have a better shot at qualifying for the Olympic trials in something else. I wound up running a marathon later that year and debuted with a 2:16 [2:16:58, Chicago, 2006]. After that, I left California and ran with Hansons in Michigan for three years. The system out there was pretty good: train everyday and run as hard as possible while working part-time. I put in a lot of work there and ran a lot of miles and now for the past year and a half, I’ve been reaping the benefits of that.

RT: You’ve been based in Flagstaff under coach Greg McMillan now for a year. How’s training been going?

NA: It’s been going pretty well. Greg’s style is pretty laid back. He sends me a schedule and allows me to alter it depending on how I’m feeling during the week. He’s not that strict, at least in the sense that he knows we’re going to get the work in. He doesn’t stand behind our shoulder and make sure we’re doing everything. We have a good relationship. He’s getting to know me as a runner and knows I don’t really kill it in workouts, so he can see that I often have better races than my workouts.

RT: What’s it like training in Flagstaff?

NA: It’s fantastic. I love all of the trails. I love being able to go out and within a mile you can be on a dirt trails that can take you forever. It’s easy on the legs, even though it’s harder on the lungs up at altitude. [Flagstaff is situated at about 7,000 feet above sea level.] But I know that’s going to benefit me in the long run. And for me, it’s a lot closer to where my family lives in Southern California, which makes it a lot easier for me to get back and see them that I was able to before.

RT: What kind of peak mileage do you typically hit during a marathon build-up?

NA: Before Houston, the highest I hit was about 110 miles. But I was only training to run through 25K. Before Chicago, I had gotten up to 153 miles.

RT: How does it feel to be picked for the U.S. team that will head to this summer’s world championships?

NA: It feels great. I really want to go and represent the U.S. It will be my first U.S. team, a big world team like this, so I’ll get a Team USA jersey and be able to race the big boys and see how it goes.

RT: What are your thoughts as you’re preparing to start your build-up?

NA: I’ve heard a couple different things. One of my teammates just got selected — 2:13 marathoner Andrew Lemoncello — for the U.K. team. So we’re going to be training together, doing a lot of longer stuff, a lot of higher mileage, and getting long tempo runs in. I’m thinking, because of the heat and humidity, it might be won 2:10, 2:11, 2:12, so it’s not going to be as quick as I’ve normally been shooting for. Basically it will be hot and humid, so I’m going to stick myself in that front group, and hopefully if they go 66 [minutes] for the first half, I’ll still be in it and be able to close the second half. But that’s just expecting them to take it easy because of the heat. Maybe they’ll just go crazy and go for a 2:06 marathon like they did in Beijing.

RT: Your mindset seems to have changed since joining the McMillan group in 2010. Is this “aggressive competitor” mindset a goal for Daegu?

NA: Oh, yeah. South Korea, Daegu, world championships, I want to get a medal. That’s my dream goal, to get a medal, to win it. Even if I finish top 10, I’ll still be happy; finish in the top 20 and it’s an “A” qualifier for the Olympics — that wouldn’t be too bad. But I definitely want to get in, stick my nose in, and finish as high as I possibly can.

NA: I know myself. I’m a bad-ass [laughs]. I’ve run 2:11, 2:18, and 2:11 in past three marathons, all within the last 11 months. All the base that was put in before, the high mileage, 140, 150 miles a week; I’ve got that now and it’s let me do things like those marathons.

RT: Up until recently, you didn’t have a 10,000m PB listed on the McMillan Elite Web site.

NA: That’s true. I took it off. I was too embarrassed to have it on there.

RT: So when was the last time you ran a 10,000m?

NA: On the track, last time I ran it, was 2006. And that was the only time I ran it on the track. I ran 30:43 or 30:42, so it was pretty slow, and it made me give up on the track races after that. I did maybe a couple 5Ks or steeplechases, but since then predominantly roads.

RT: How was it switching gears and preparing for the 10,000m at Payton Jordan?

NA: I’ve been training with Jordan [Horn] and Aaron Braun and Scott Smith and Marco [Anzures], just all the guys who are out here also doing the 10K, and they’ve been doing 5Ks and 3Ks all season long. I’ve been keeping up with them in workouts, so things are looking good. I’m looking just as sharp as they are. RT: What races do you think you’ll run this fall while you’re building up to next January’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials?

NA: The are U.S. championship races at the end of September, first week of October, but I’ll only have four weeks after Daegu to be prepared, so I won’t be doing those at all. I’d imagine I’d do U.S. cross country club nationals in December and maybe a half marathon if we can find something. [At the U.S. club cross country race last December, teammate Aaron Braun and Arciniaga finished 1-2 as part of McMillanElite’s team title.]

RT: One of the new components to big PBs in San Diego and Houston seemed to be adding shorter, faster workouts similar to 10K/half marathon segments. Will that be a part of your fall build-up for the trials?

NA: Oh yeah. I’m definitely going to replicate doing a lot more faster stuff during the fall, just getting a lot of speed work in, shorter tempo runs and getting the turnover ready to run a fast pace. And, of course, be ready to run as fast as Ryan Hall hopefully [laughs].

RT: What have you learned from running the marathon?

NA: Not everybody has their day on race day. Sometimes your legs don’t have it and there’s nothing you can do. You can’t fake it over 26 miles. I was well-trained going into Chicago, but I just had a bad day. You’ve gotta keep going and grit it out for the next one. That’s one of the most difficult things about the marathon. There’s so much work and build-up that goes into it and if you don’t have a good one, there’s so much let-down — both physically and emotionally. That's just how the marathon is, but it's why it's so satisfying to run a good one.